Homemade Crescent Rolls

I come from a family of nappers. Well, I should rephrase that a bit. My Mom and sisters could win a napping competition against the best nappers in the whole wide universe. I guess I wouldn’t call my Dad a napper, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen my brothers nap. But whatever. I come from half a family of nappers.

I, though, am not a napper. Napping makes me feel worse than if I didn’t take a nap at all. I know there is supposedly some magical “power nap” formula – like if you only sleep for 10 minutes while laying on the floor with no pillow and you cross your second toe over your big toe and avoid direct sunlight but it can’t be too dark, then you’ll wake up feeling re-energized and amazing. Hm.

Redic. Are you a power-napper or a vampire? Make up your mind.

And now I’ve typed the word “nap” so many times that it looks funny to me.

“Tartlette. Tartlette. Tartlette. The word has lost all meaning.” ~name that show.

Even though I know that I’m a bad napper, I had a headache and my three year old was, well, napping – so I decided to try to shut my eyes for a few minutes. A few minutes turned into almost an hour. I woke up feeling groggy and grumpy and like the last thing I wanted to do was make dinner.

Cue the super-easy homemade crescent rolls.

I know I’ve posted a lot of bread recipes lately, but this one absolutely held its own. Slightly sweet, super soft and very, very easy to make. Even though I over-napped, I still managed to whip these up in just under 90 minutes – and 60 minutes of that was rise time. I just kind of made them in the background while I made the rest of our dinner, and I was very pleased with the results – we’ll definitely make these again and again.

This does make a LOT of crescent rolls, so you could certainly cut the recipe in half, but I’m pretty sure that these will get eaten. I’m already thinking about them for breakfast with a little butter and honey…

And maybe a midnight snack, too. Since, you know, I’ll be up all night because I took a nap.

Directions:In a small bowl, combine water and evaporated milk. Heat in microwave until warm, about one minute. Pour into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough-hook attachment.

Add melted butter, beaten eggs, salt and sugar. Mix until combined, scraping sides if necessary. Add yeast, and mix for another 30 seconds or so, using a whisk to incorporate yeast if necessary.

One cup at a time, add flour until the dough starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. I used seven cups of flour and it was perfect. Beat for another five minutes. The dough will break down again and will remain very sticky.

Transfer the dough to a large greased bowl and cover with a towel. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-2 hours. (Mine took 50 minutes.) *Tip: if you have the oven space, heat your oven to warm (170 degress (F) and turn it off. Then, allow your dough to rise in your warm, closed oven.

Once dough has doubled in bulk, punch it down and divide it into four equal pieces and preheat your oven to 375 degrees (F). On a lightly floured surface, roll once piece of dough out into a 12-18 inch circle. Using a pizza cutter, cut the dough into four equal pieces. Then, cut each of the four pieces into three even pieces so you have a total of 12 triangles of dough – kind of like cutting a pizza.

Take one of the triangles of dough, and rolling from the wide edge towards the narrow point, roll the dough into 12 crescent rolls, tucking the end point of the dough underneath the roll. Place onto a large, parchment or silpat lined cookie sheet and allow to sit for at least 10 minutes before baking. Repeat with other three pieces of dough.

Bake for 12-13 minutes or until golden brown. While baking, melt the honey and butter together in the microwave, and when rolls come out of the oven, immediately brush them with the honey butter. Cool on the pan until ready to serve.

I feel the same about naps, I usually feel worse after I wake up. But every once in awhile it is nice to have a nap. These look wonderful and I am going to pin them as I have been thinking of making my own crescent rolls.

I need to make a dessert for tomorrow that calls for those store bought crescent roll dough found in the refrigerator section. I know a lot of people love ’em, but ‘though convenient, I always feel that it has a certain “taste” that I’m not keen on. I shall happily use your recipe instead!